Chapter 1: The Alpha

Micah

A soft pink glow emanates from James Robinson’s hands as he stands across the room from me. I am in awe. I’ve seen a lot of healers before but never one as powerful as him, and for a moment I reflect on how glad I am that I’ve secured him as the pack healer for Midnight Moon pack.

“It’s really not that big of a deal, Alpha Micah,” James says, dropping his hands, the light fading away.

“I disagree,” I say, standing behind my desk. I want to give him some space. He’s only just arrived at my pack village, and I think it’s important that he knows he’s welcome here, but I don’t plan to micromanage him. “That healing power will come in handy when we have injured pack members.”

James clears his throat. “Hopefully, I’ll just be taking care of the sick and elderly,” he says, “and not wolves hurt during battle.”

“Hopefully,” I say, nodding my head. “But… as I told you on the phone, we’ve been having some issues with Dark Eclipse pack. I really hope it doesn’t come to a fight, but if it does…. Well, let’s just say, I’m really glad you’re here.”

James smiles at me and nods. He looks a little tense, and I can’t blame him. I know that he isn’t motivated by money, though I paid him a lot to leave his other pack and come here. When I explained to him that we are in the midst of a border dispute with a pack that doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge treaties, right away the healer's sense of justice kicked in and he agreed to join our pack.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that either,” James tells me. “You said that you’re in the process of changing Betas?”

I open my mouth to respond, but no words come out. Running a hand through my short, dark hair, I nod and sit on the corner of my desk. It’s a little more cluttered than it should be, and I try not to knock any of the papers over. “Yeah,” I say.

James’s eyebrows arch. “Everything okay?”

I shrug. “I guess so. It’s just—”

Before I can finish my explanation, the door to my office opens, and there, standing in the entryway, is the soon-to-be Beta. Even though it’s dark outside, and my office is poorly lit, she’s bright and cheerful, her face glowing, her red hair radiant, her blue eyes like twinkling sapphires.

It’s enough to make me want to crawl under my desk.

“You’re here!” Zariah Tucker exclaims. She practically bounces into the room. “I wish someone would’ve told me!” She looks at me out of the corner of her eye but doesn’t otherwise acknowledge that I am “someone.” Stopping a few feet in front of James, who is standing near a table full of medical supplies he was just sifting through, Zariah extends her hand. “Welcome to Midnight Moon, James!” she says, a one-woman welcoming committee that has to make him feel like he’s the luckiest man alive. “We’re so glad to have you.”

“Thank you,” James says, shaking her hand. “It’s very nice to be here.”

“I’m Zariah, Alpha Micah’s Beta,” she says, so confident, so sure of herself. So wrong.

“Not yet, you’re not,” I correct her.

Zariah shrugs. “My father is the Beta right now, but he’s going to retire soon. He was Alpha Micah’s father’s Beta, and I’m Alpha Micah’s Beta.”

“You will be. Someday. Maybe,” I say, folding my arms across my chest.

James looks up at me, and I can see he’s both confused and amused. I guess I can’t blame him. He has no idea what to think of this situation, I’m sure.

Zariah waves a hand in the air in my direction—flippantly. “Oh, don’t mind him. He’s just being ridiculous. Aren’t you, Mike?”

“Don’t call me that, Zariah!” I tell her, standing up to my full six feet four. “I’ve told you a hundred times it’s disrespectful. I’m the Alpha now. You have to be respectful.”

She turns and grins at me. It’s the sort of smile that would make any other man’s heart beat right out of their chest, and she doesn’t even know it. Thankfully, I am completely immune to her beauty. I don’t even notice it.

Snickering, James says, “Clearly, there’s a dynamic here that I’m not privy to, and I’m guessing it’s going to stay that way. I need to get these supplies over to the clinic.”

“Do you want some help?” Zariah asks.

“No, that’s okay,” he says, and I don’t blame him. She’s probably starting to annoy him, too.

“Well, I hope that Alpha Micah Cooper,” she emphasizes my correct name, “has told you about the Moon Goddess Ball on Saturday. You will be attending, I hope?”

Anyone else might think that she was inviting him as her date. I felt my wolf react slightly, which was dumb. Why would I even care if Zariah asked James or anyone else on a date? But I knew otherwise anyway. She is just being nice. That and everyone knows that healers never really marry. Rarely do healers find their fated mates. They generally spend their entire lives devoted to their healing.

“Oh, I don’t know if I’ll go or not,” James says. “It probably wouldn’t do much good, what with me being a healer and all.”

He is alluding to exactly what I’d just been thinking about. I try to relax, hoping that Zariah has gotten the point. “You never know,” she says with a shrug. “We have a lot of pretty girls in Midnight Moon. You may as well come and dance and have some fun.”

“Maybe,” James says. “But why is the Moon Goddess Ball being thrown now? I thought you usually did that when the Alpha was twenty-one. Aren’t you older than that, Alpha Micah?”

I nod. That was the custom for our kind. Generally speaking, shifters try to match the Alpha, or soon-to-be Alpha, with their mate when they turn twenty-one, but with all of the problems we are having with Dark Eclipse, we keep putting it off. “We’ve been battling our neighbors,” I explain. “While it’s not any better now, my father’s not getting any younger, and he wants to make sure there’s… an heir.”

James nods in understanding. “Your father’s quite a bit older than you, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he waited until he was fairly advanced in age to have me. My mom is only forty-seven,” I tell him. My mom is my father’s second mate. He never speaks of his original mate….

“Well,” James says, clearly seeing we are getting close to a topic I don’t wish to discuss, “I’d better be going. It was nice to meet you, Zariah.”

“You, too, James,” Zariah says. “And seriously, if you need anything at all, let me know.” She smiles at him, gives me a cold look, and then turns around and heads for the door.

After she leaves, James asks me, “Do I even want to know?”

I know he’s referring to the situation between Zariah and me, so I say, “No, probably not.”